Microsoft

Word of Microsoft's upcoming video game console, MS Natal, broke last night but it didn't come during company CEO Steve Ballmer's much-anticipated speech in front of a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) crowd. Instead, news that Microsoft Natal will ... ship this year emerged thanks to a leaked video featuring former Xbox chief Robbie Bach. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hit the stage last night; the company had hoped it would be during his speech when further details about Natal were finally unveiled. Unfortunately, a video featuring Robbie Bach playing Natal was posted to Microsoft's Channel 9 ... (view more)

Everything is just about set for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote address tomorrow night in front of a giddy Consumer Electronics Show (CES) crowd. Big news on upcoming products is expected -- however, a day before his speech, Microsoft ... yesterday unveiled pricing for its highly anticipated Office 2010. Microsoft Office is well known for its impressive suite of tools used by home and business users, including fan-favorite programs Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. The next edition of Office is due this June, but thanks to the recent announcement we now have an idea of how much Office 2010 will ... (view more)

If you don't have any trouble reading deep into Microsoft job postings, it would appear that the Redmond-based company is preparing to bring its extremely popular Xbox Live online gaming network to Windows Mobile phones. The postings in question ... were for a principal program manager and for a software test engineer. The former was filled on December 23, 2009, but that doesn't really matter -- for the wider interests of techies, the devil is in the details. The job ads made several blatant references to Windows Mobile and the possibility of some level of integration with Xbox Live, currently ... (view more)

As we reported yesterday , Microsoft has lost a federal appeal over a copyright case involving the MS Office program, MS Word. In short, Microsoft breached a patent on a technique for opening XML (Extensible Markup Language) documents in MS Word. ... What is XML? XML is something of a sequel to HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), which is the language used for creating the layout of a webpage. Whereas HTML "tags" decide how text appears on screen, XML tells a computer what the text is about. This effectively turns web content into a type of database and makes it easier to organize and manipulate ... (view more)

Microsoft has lost another appeal to keep Microsoft Word 2007 on store shelves in its current form. An appeals court on Tuesday found that the company had infringed on Canadian firm i4i's patent for a built-in XML editor. Microsoft and i4i aroused ... much attention back over the summer , when a U.S. District Court judge in Eastern Texas found that the Redmond-based software giant had infringed on the much smaller Toronto company's patent for an XML editor that is a critical part of the Office program Word. Rather than immediately set about changing the program to avoid the patent conflict, ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced their involvement in the war against illicit child photos by creating a new software tool that will give those looking to abolish such unethical material an upper hand. The software, which is somewhat similar to an antivirus ... program, will identify signatures in content to find images of those being abused. Microsoft researchers worked alongside Dartmouth College computer science professor Henry Farid to produce PhotoDNA. The software is able to accurately pinpoint certain characteristics in digital images that computers can scan online. Said Farid, "The basic idea is ... (view more)

Microsoft has apologized after a contractor appeared to copy code from a rival company to use in a microblogging service. But Plurk, the company claiming its material was stolen, says it is considering taking the matter to court. Juku, a ... Twitter-style blogging feature on Microsoft's MSN site in China, was taken down this week after the complaints. Plurk's staff had written that Juku's design had involved "blatant theft of code, design, and user interface elements." As Much as 80% of Code Stolen Not only did Plurk staff believe Juku's look and feel was remarkably similar to its own site, but ... (view more)

Whether you are a university student using your laptop in residence or an employee surfing the Internet at the office, closely controlling your online history is crucial in keeping your identity safe and your privacy intact. According to Sree ... Kamireddy, Program Manager for Microsoft Bing, very few people are actually aware of the Bing Search History control options that are offered through the "decision engine". The switches offer a safer level of privacy control which is particularly useful if your PC or laptop falls into the wrong hands. The On / Off Switch Online search history ... (view more)

Microsoft is being sued by a small tech firm for using a part of its name, Bing! Information Design, as the moniker for its new search engine. Bing! Information Design says it's been using the name for almost ten years, far longer than the ... seven-month-old Bing search engine. St. Louis-based Bing! Information Design filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in its home city. The company claims that Microsoft's search engine violates its trademark on the word 'Bing'. Bing! Information Design says it has had rights to that name since 2000. Specifically, the suit alleges Microsoft is guilty of "trademark ... (view more)

Microsoft will ask all European users of Internet Explorer whether they want to try out a rival browser. It's an unexpected result in a long-running dispute with European Union officials. It came as no surprise when the firm announced today that it ... will include a "browser ballot" screen on all Windows PCs sold in Europe from January 2010, and on. The scheme, which Microsoft had proposed some months ago, will mean that during set-up users will see a list of leading browsers and have the option to install some or all of them, rather than simply getting Internet Explorer by default. Ball Screen ... (view more)